SEO Techniques, Creating Sitemaps

Many search engines will try to index your site’s pages by following links to all of the different pages. However if a search engine is unable to follow a link, then a page might not get included in the search engine’s results. To make sure all of your pages get indexed, make sure that you have a text-based sitemap that includes all of the major pages of your web site.
 
The Sitemaps protocol allows a webmaster to inform search engines about URLs on a website that are available for crawling. A Sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. It allows webmasters to include additional information about each URL: when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other URLs in the site. This allows search engines to crawl the site more intelligently. Sitemaps are a URL inclusion protocol and complement robots.txt, a URL exclusion protocol.
 
Sitemaps are particularly beneficial on websites where, some areas of the website are not available through the browsable interface, or webmasters use rich Ajax, Silverlight, or Flash content that is not normally processed by search engines.
 
The webmaster can generate a Sitemap containing all accessible URLs on the site and submit it to search engines. Since Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask use the same protocol now, having a Sitemap would let the biggest search engines have the updated pages information.
 
Sitemaps supplement and do not replace the existing crawl-based mechanisms that search engines already use to discover URLs. Using this protocol does not guarantee that web pages will be included in search indexes, nor does it influence the way that pages are ranked in search results.
 
Not sure where to start? We can help! With our silver SEO package we will create a sitemap and robots file for your website and ave it submitted to 350+ searching engines for only $99.
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15 Ways to Decrease Website Bounce Rates

What does "bounce rate" mean?
  
The Google definition of bounce rate is as follows:
“Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.”
 
So the lower the bounce rate the better, as this means more of your visitors are clicking through to other content on your website.
  
Please find below some common methods which can be useful when lowering your bounce rate and keep visitors engaged on your website.
 
1. Page loading time
 
Speed is crucial. Your page should take no more than about 5 seconds to load if possible. Do not clutter your page with too many elements that take time to load and optimize your images and code.
 
2. Audio Effects / Music
  
It’s a fact that many users will immediately exit your site if they start hearing something they don’t like (or can’t see). Although in some websites music and audio would be appropriate, in general you better off it. That being said; remove anything that automatically starts making noises such as soundtracks, auto-starting videos and similar.
  
3. First Impact
  
You need a good, catching layout for you site. Your website needs to instantly portray an image of quality, and an image relevant to your product or service. Remember, you have only one shot to capture your visitor’s attention and make a good impression of your company. 
  
4. Browser Compatibility
  
Make sure your Website is compatible with ALL BROWSERS (Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc …) You never know which browser your visitor will be using, so make sure your site validates and runs smoothly on all browsers. Test in all relevant browsers. Not sure if your website is compatible with all browsers? Contact us about our free website evaluation report.
 
5. Relevant Titles and Headings
  
Make the information available in an easy way for your visitors. If users have been searching for “blue shirts” make sure you have a header that has that information, for instance “See our collection of Blue Shirts”, otherwise they may leave immediately your site. Another way to make things easier would be including a Search box somewhere in your site.
 
This will help users to find what they are looking for by typing a keyword. Not sure how to install a search in your website? We can help! Contact us about adding searching features for your site
 
6. Image Optimization
 
Provide as many descriptive image resources as needed. Chose well, design a powerful image or collage of your products since that can give an instant idea of what it is all about, what it looks like, how to use it and where to use. 
   
7. Stay above the fold
   
First of all, what does that mean? Above the fold means what your visitors see when they come to your site without having to scroll down the page.
  
It’s a simple and powerful tip. Keep the key information or the product you are selling above the fold. Users who don’t see what they are looking for right away might leave your site immediately.
 
8. Keep it Simple
   
The rest of the page should be simple, uncluttered and with few navigational choices to be made. Remember, you already made your point Above the Fold (item 7), so if you need to add more information why not creating a link add to cart, read more, sign up, see how it works, and then link to an additional page?
  
This is not only a good CALL-TO-ACTION but also a way to have your page clean and effective.
  
9. Communicate your message well
  
Communicate well to your audience. Revise your information over and over to make sure the message is being passed the right away. Consider whether your audience is young, teen years, older, creative, skillful, computer literate, professionals, consumers etc. Make sure you do a spelling check through all pages of your site!
 
10. Cross Selling Products and Services
  
Just because you don’t have a certain product temporarily in stock, that does not mean you can’t have a cross selling products area with other options and related items! You never know your visitor might buy an alternate product, different color, different service that relates, etc … If you have an ecommerce website and need help adding cross selling products to it please visit our ecommerce features page or get a free website quote
  
11. Eliminate distractions
 
Make sure you eliminate elements placed in your page that are causing distractions, such as automatic popups, text-scrollers, animated gifs, spinning logos or cluttered flash.
 
12. Navigation Tabs
 
This is also crucial; the position of the menu in your site has to be visible at all times and easy to navigate through. Add the most important navigation tabs first. For instance, some visitors might want to read about the company, the owner, check your phone number and address for legitimacy and so on.
 
It is also a common practice to have the main company logo link to the site homepage, so the visitor always have a way to return to the main page regardless. 
 
13. Keep your site fresh
 
Make changes on your website often. Nobody likes to visit a website that has information posted 5 years ago.
 
14. Add Customer Testimonials
 
Use as many testimonials as possible. Call your clients, ask them to provide their feedback about your service or products and obtain their permission to use on your website. Visitors often like and might benefit from reading other customers positive experiences with your company. 
  
15) Inquiry Forms and Contact Forms
 
Make sure your forms only ask the essential information you need to operate. Do not make all fields required (unless really needed). The easier and quicker to fill out the better!
 
Not sure where to start?
Call us for a free website evaluation and get a free website report to help you get started!

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is a combination of the number of times a keyword or a keyword phrase, in proportion with other words, appears on a Web page. For example, if you have a Web page with exactly 100 words on it including all headlines, captions, alt text, and advertising, and you have a keyword phrase that is on the page 3 times, your keyword density is 3%:
 
Keyword density applies to the page as it displays live on your website. Many people will create content with a high keyword density and then place it on their website with a lot of navigation, images, and advertising content and their actual density will go down.
 
There is no hard and fast rule for what your keyword density should be. But too little and it won't be clear to search engines what the page is about and too much and it will look like you're trying to spam them. Plus, the more times you repeat a keyword phrase the more the page won't be palatable to your readers.
 
Don't let keyword density rule your Web writing. If your page has a very low keyword density, but it's well written and clear, you'll get as many readers as you would with a more SEO focused articles.
 
What should my Keyword Density be?
 
The accepted sweet spot for keyword density is between 3% and 5%, to get recognized by the search engines and you should never exceed it.
 
Remember, that this rule applies to every page on your site. It also applies to not just to one keyword but also a set of keywords that relates to a different product or service. The keyword density should always be between 3% and 5%.
 
So, be sure you have the proper keyword density, because using the correct keyword density will give your site an SEO boost.
 
Not sure where to start? We can give you hand. Click here to know more about our SEO services.

5 Tips and Tricks to Increase Google Page Rank for Your Website

Google page rank is an elusive term that most people don't completely understand. In fact, there are probably few people in the world who completely understand it, because Google keeps its page rank algorithm secretly. Boosting your Google page rank isn't something you can do overnight. If there was such a thing everybody would be page ranked 10 (maximum). In this article you will learn 5 tricks to increase your site's Google page rank that are fairly easy to implement over time.

1. Get Incoming Links from Related High Quality Sites

This is one the best ways to increase your Google page rank, however it might not make a difference over night, but it will make a big difference overtime. The key is to get incoming links to your site from highly authoritative and high-traffic websites and blogs that are related your website’s topic.

For instance, if you write a blog about finance, getting a link from The Reuters website would give your blog a big boost. If you could get more high quality links from popular sites such as TheWallStreetJournal.com, Fortune.com, SmartMoney.com, and so on, your blog's Google page rank would most certainly jump up.

2. Apply SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization is an important part of increasing Google page rank. Read the 10 High Priority SEO tricks and Tips, and make sure you apply them towards your site.

3. Write Original Content

Do not copy content from other sites. Even if you're copying and republishing your own content from one page or one site to another, do not do it. Google's page rank algorithm will either give the originating site the credit and downgrade the others or downgrade all of the sites that publish the duplicated content and once your page rank is downgraded, it can be nearly impossible to get it back up again.

4. Don't Go Crazy on the Links

Many webmasters hear that it's important to have incoming links to boost their site's Google page rank, so they start leaving comments anywhere and everywhere across the web, participating in random link exchanges with anyone who is willing to participate, and so on. Remember, as the first item on this list says, Google's algorithm cares about quality links, not quantity.

5. Write Quality Content

If you write quality content, people will want to link to it, particularly high traffic quality websites. Get on the radar screen of popular bloggers and websites by leaving comments, writing guest posts, participating in forums, emailing directly, writing articles, create social networking. Build relationships with people who write for high quality sites, and the number of quality, incoming links you get to your site will grow organically over time increasing your page rank.
 
Not sure where to start? We can help! Check our SEO services.